The letter below summarizes the point I reached in my efforts from about `65 to `80 to understand the foundation of consciousness __________________________________________________________________________ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ Bob Armstrong{p PRNTfn  PRNTfn' BMPRNTh12 '} Coherent Systems, Inc 288 Vine Ave 42 Peck Slip Highland Park, IL 60035 New York, NY 10038.1725 212.285.1864 CmpSrv:70421,2425 Fax by Arrangement { PRNTfn  P } Patrick Young , Editor Science News | LIB |>| C:COSY 1719 N St , NW | JOB |>| ScienceNews:ConsciousnessLtr92/10/31 Washington DC 20036 | DDT |>| SAT.OCT,1992/10/31,0:56 202-785-2255 Dear Edtior , As a new subscriber , I`m encouraged to see Bruce Bower`s review ( SN: 92/10/10&17 ) of recent work on comprehending consciousness since I spent the `70s in grad school pursuing that problem . I think the scientific understanding of this 'relation which relates itself to its own self' as Kierkegaard put it , will continue to be a central challenge even when we are constructing 'Lt. Commander Data's and knowing on theoretical grounds that they are conscious . Let me present a few conclusions from my own trek : Consciousness clearly must arise from the spatiotemporal structure of brains` information flows. The mathematics required for its understanding starts with multidimensional geometry . Christopher Zeeman in the early `60s pointed out that the state of the approximately 10E14 neurons in the brain can be described as a point in a 10E14 dimensional cube and the path of consciousness determined by the path of that point down gradients of attraction . A second thread needed in the knot is the mathematics of associative memory which was already becoming rather well understood when I was in school . Dennis Gabor , the father of holography himself , wrote a couple of the most sucinct and insightful articles about it . So , with the mathematics of memory in hand , and with the conceptual tools to deal with the entire patterns of activity of the brain at once , can we form a first hypothesis about the foundation of consciousness ? I concluded it may arise from a folding in time of the brain`s patterns of activity back upon themselves creating a singularity in time and space - an interval of mutual awareness . The Hippocampus appears to have the appropriate structure for spreading its information flows out in time , and to be clinically related to the phenomenon of consciousness . // Yours Truly , |SUN.NOV,1992/11/1,22:38 Bob Armstrong \PatrickYoung,Editor;202-785-2255 ;Science News /1719 N St , NW /Washington DC 20036 while the contingencies of existance |SAT.OCT,1992/10/31,4:25 Sending Mon 11/2 ==========================ø TUE.DEC,1992/12/22 ø========================== |12:49| sending Cancel w N: I see no reason to pay for people`s writings who don`t appreciate mine | dreg : I judge magazienes largly by their ltrs Col . |12:58|